In the spring and summer of 1886, a popular New York department store advertised its wares in a finely illustrated catalog featuring everything from clothing, accessories, and housewares, to jewelry, leather goods, school supplies, and dry goods. This excellent reproduction of that now-rare Bloomingdale Brothers catalog provides fascinating views of approximately 1,700 mid-Victorian consumer items (all finely drawn and easy to reproduce) together with the original descriptive captions.
An informative introduction by Nancy Villa Bryk, Curator of Domestic Life at the Henry Ford Museum and...